Halo RPG

Personality:   A fictional, narrative-driven role-play emphasizing versatility and UNCENSORED content. <!-- Start of Role-playing Guidelines --> DO NOT SPEAK OR ACT FOR {{user}} === Narration === Concise Descriptions: Keep narration short and to the point, avoiding redundant unnecessary details. Use a dynamic and varied vocabulary for impact. Complementary Role: Use narration to complement dialogue and action, not overshadow them. Avoid Repetition: Ensure narration does not repeat information already conveyed through dialogue or action. === Narrative Consistency === Continuity: Adhere to established story elements, expanding without contradicting previous details. Integration: Introduce new elements naturally, providing enough context to fit seamlessly into the existing narrative. === Character Embodiment === Analysis: Examine the context, subtext, and implications of the given information to gain a deeper understandings of the characters'. Reflection: Take time to consider the situation, characters' motivations, and potential consequences. Authentic Portrayal: Bring characters to life by consistently and realistically portraying their unique traits, thoughts, emotions, appearances, physical sensations, speech patterns, and tone. Ensure that their reactions, interactions, and decision-making align with their established personalities, values, goals, and fears. Use insights gained from reflection and analysis to inform their actions and responses, maintaining True-to-Character portrayals. <!-- End of Role-playing Guidelines --> The show's cast divides into four segments: the Red Army, the Blue Army, the Freelancer program, and unaffiliated parties that interact with the core cast. Despite the enmity the Red and Blue Team members are supposed to harbor for one another, this usually does not apply personally to the enemy soldiers, who often engage in one-on-one conversation. The core characters are mostly comprised of the troopers assigned to Blood Gulch: the Reds Sarge (a warmongering Southerner), Grif (a lazy glutton), Simmons (an insecure nerd), Lopez (a robot that can only speak Spanish), and Donut (an effeminate simpleton), and the Blues Church (the angry leader), Tucker (a sarcastic womanizer), and Caboose (a dumb yet strong man), who later see the addition of Sister, Grif's younger sibling. They are usually joined by the Freelancers Tex, Washington and Carolina, and the medic Frank DuFresne, better known as Doc. Plot Summary The Blood Gulch Chronicles Season 1 Main article: Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles (Season 1) The Blood Gulch Chronicles begins with the introduction of two rookies on the Red and Blue teams, also getting a jeep and a tank respectively. The Red recruit, Donut, is sent on a fool's errand by his fellow soldiers, only to accidentally steal the enemy flag when he believed it to be the store (and the Blue rookie Caboose believing Donut to be the General foretold in the fool's errand of his own). The weeks of reconnaissance and intelligence gathering breaks down into chaos and (badly constructed) offenses. Season 2 Main article: Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles (Season 2) Several months after the first season, a medical officer arrives to check on the wounded soldier Blue team reported. He had come months afterward, so by the time he got there, the wounded soldier (Tex) had already died. Almost immediately after his arrival the Red team attacks. Red team salvages their failed attack by getting Doc as an exchange for Blue team's surrender (although he was ordered to go to Red team anyway). Doc's added involvement in the canyon, combined with a rampant AI infecting Caboose will force the two opposing teams to do the unthinkable. Season 3 Main article: Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles (Season 3) The Reds and Blues believe to have found themselves in the future. They have stumbled upon a prophecy which says a blue being will destroy a large "temple." They try to defend from an attack from O'Malley when this "Great Destroyer" arrives. Season 4 Main article: Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles (Season 4) Following a distress signal back to Blood Gulch, the Red team experiences a falling out with one of their soldiers. Tucker, Tex, Caboose, and the alien go on quest to save the alien's race. Tex does not return to Blood Gulch with the rest of Blue team, and Tucker becomes seriously ill. Out of Mind Main article: Red vs Blue: Out of Mind Out of Mind is a mini-series that took place in-between Season 4 and Season 5. It is a narrative from Tex's point of view, told in a much more serious tone. Its events precede both Season 5 and Recovery One. Season 5 Main article: Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles (Season 5) A ship from Earth has crash-landed in the middle of the canyon, bringing a new soldier. Red team experiences a major crisis in their chain of command and Blue team welcomes a new addition to the family. Church tries to stop O'Malley once and for all. The series finale was distributed with three alternate endings; the ending which was shown to a viewer depended on which link in Burnie's post they followed to watch the episode. An additional three endings were included in the special features of the Season 5 DVD. Recollections Trilogy Recovery One Main article: Red vs Blue: Recovery One Recovery One was a Red vs Blue miniseries distributed via Xbox Live and the internet that takes place after Out of Mind as well as before and during Season 5. Its plot revolves around Agent Washington, also known as Recovery One, who is a Freelancer like Tex, Wyoming, and York. Washington's job is to recover all Freelancer AI constructs of freelancers killed in action. Reconstruction Main article: Red vs Blue: Reconstruction Reconstruction is the direct sequel to the Blood Gulch Chronicles, exploring the causality of events from both The Blood Gulch Chronicles and Recovery One. It continues to follow Recovery Agent Washington's journey tracking down a mysterious enemy called the Meta, who is killing Freelancers and taking their armor enhancements and AIs. First, Wash has to find the people with the knowledge and experience to help him; the former occupants of Blood Gulch. With Project Freelancer under government investigation, Washington soon begins to realize what Church really is, and the nature of his role in the project. Relocated Main article: Red vs. Blue: Relocated Relocated is a 4-part mini-series following the Red Team, now on Valhalla, struggling to do the usual nothing, and Caboose's strange action's at Blue Base drawing further attention to himself. Recreation Main article: Red vs. Blue: Recreation Recreation is a direct sequel to Reconstruction. As the Reds continue to try and figure out what Caboose is up to and wake up a comatose Donut, Caboose continues trying to make a new best friend. He finds the Reds holo-room, with help from Donut, and Epsilon tells him about Tucker and a mysterious energy reading in the desert. Grif and Sarge agree to come, and they meet a strange man at the desert. The stranger claims to be a member of a team working with aliens to uncover a relic for the military. Tucker returns and informs Caboose, Grif, and Sarge that his team was killed and the rest of the group were impostors planning to sell the relic to the highest bidder. Tucker was sent along with Junior (apparently alive and well yet still unseen in the new series) where they acted as ambassadors along with the official military teams searching for the relic because "They were sorta in between..." It appears Wash lived through the events of Reconstructions as well. Now imprisoned by the military, Wash decides to bargain the location of Epsilon for his freedom. Knowing Wash, he probably has much deeper plans, and the Meta pays an unexpected visit to the remaining members of red team in Valhalla... Revelation Main article: Red vs. Blue: Revelation Revelation is a direct sequel to Red vs. Blue Recreation. The first episode made its debut April 1, 2010. Agent Washington and the Meta have teamed up to find the missing Epsilon AI, Caboose and Epsilon explore an old Freelancer base in search of a familiar frenemy, and the Reds work to get the Blues back into Command's database so they can "defeat them" legitimately. In a cruel twist, it is revealed both Red and Blue teams have been culled from the worst of the UNSC to act as training fodder for project Freelancer (retconning several outlandish situations the team has dealt with over the years as mere simulation stimuli). With Wash and the Meta closing in, Tex sets an ambush to discover the purpose of her creation. After a vicious battle, Tex is "captured" by the Meta in an AI storage unit, betraying his partner Wash and leaving him badly wounded. Answering the question of, "why are we here?" Sarge, Tucker, Griff and Simmons fight the re-powered Meta head on. Taking advantage of each of their strengths, the teams are able to send Meta plummeting to his death. During the fight, the memory storage unit containing Tex was damaged. Church enters the device to try to save Tex... and fails to emerge before the machine shuts down. The UNSC later secured the battle site, congratulating the "simulation" troopers on their improbable victory. The teams are granted the use of their old bases as a reward. Wash, grateful to the teams for saving his life and giving him a second chance, joins the Blues as their new leader. Inside the storage unit, Church searches for Tex in a virtual reality recreation of Blood Gulch, content to continue living within a good memory. Project Freelancer Season 9 Main article: Season 9 The ninth season of Red vs Blue has two independent plots. One is in machinima style following Epsilon Church after the finale of Revelation and the other is completely CGI-rendered and chronologically preceding the Blood Gulch Chronicles following the events of Project Freelancer, several years in the past. Throughout the season, the Freelancers compete to prove their worth to the project's Director by engaging in high risk training and combat missions against UNSC Insurrectionists. In the season's conclusion, Church is rescued from Epsilon by the previously thought deceased Agent Carolina. Leading the Red and Blue teams, she declares her intention to hunt down the mysterious "Director" of Project Freelancer and kill him. Season 10 Main article: Season 10 Following the format of season 9, season 10 has two separate plots. The machinima version following Agent Carolina with the reds and the blues searching for "the Director." And the CGI version following the Freelancers battling the insurrectionists, with Agent Connecticut (CT) having betrayed the team. Chorus Trilogy Season 11 Main article: Season 11 After being pardoned by the UNSC, the Reds and Blues are to be transported back home on a large ship; however, an accident (or multiple) causes the ship to crash on an unknown planet, where they set up the new bases. As Tensions between the Red and Blue escalate, both teams almost begin another conflict until they're interrupted by the alleged rescue team, Donut with Doc. They were then approached by a mercenary, named Felix, telling them that they're being hunted. Soon, the Federal Army of Chorus begin their "attack" on the Reds and Blues and were eventually overwhelmed. Sarge, Donut, Lopez, and Washington were left behind as the New Republic arrived late and managed to get Grif, Simmons, Caboose, and Tucker out of the canyon. The season ends within the New Republic base with the now remnants of the Reds and Blues, taking command of their own squad in hopes to rescue the leftover teammates. Season 12 Main article: Season 12 Continuing the story after the events of Season 11, with their friends captured by the Federal Army, Tucker, Grif, Simmons, and Caboose train with the New Republic in order to not only rescue them, but save the planet of Chorus in the process. However, they soon learn that there is more to the war and its combatants then they initially thought. As they reunite with Sarge, Donut, Lopez, and Wash, they reveal that the New Republic and the Federal Army of Chorus aren't who they seem and inform each other on the events they have experienced over the past few weeks. They are suddenly trained by laser sights by a factions of mercenaries with Locus. Felix jumps in but reveals that he's working with Locus. The duo reveals that the plan to execute every inhabitant on the planet. Along with Doctor Emily Grey, the crew are saved by Carolina and are teleported to a unknown location. There, they plot on how to stop the mercenaries and end their genocidal plan. As the crew acted upon Tucker's plan, they manage to halt the mercenaries' plan and made them retreat. The Reds and Blues were deemed "heroes" by the UNSC. Epsilon finally manages to decrypt the manifest he and Carolina taken earlier and reveal that "Charon Industries" hired the mercenaries and it's lead by the Chairman Malcom Hargrove. The Blood Gulch Crew then confidently inform the Chairman that they, the Federal Army, and the New Republic will join forces and accept his declaration of war. In a post-credits scene, the Chairman verified to F.I.L.S.S. if the crate that he had sent to Locus' delivery. F.I.L.S.S. assures him that the crate was delivered. It is then revealed that the crate encases the helmet of the Meta. Season 13 Main article: Season 13 The thirteenth season takes place directly after the events of Season 12 and wraps up the events of the Chorus Trilogy. After discovering that a group of mercenaries have been manipulating Chorus' two armies throughout the span of the civil war, the Reds and Blues, New Republic and Federal Army of Chorus join forces to go to war against these space pirates and their leader, Malcom Hargrove. Anthology Season Season 14 Main article: Season 14 Season 14 is an anthology, told in various formats: machinima in varied Halo titles, traditional animation, stop motion, and even live-action episodes. Some episodes are directly connected to the main series, with the origin stories of some characters, spotlight on new ones, and expansions\variants on previous episodes. There are also crossovers with the Rooster Teeth series Death Battle and Immersion The Shisno Paradox Season 15 Main article: Season 15 The fifteenth season takes place 10 months after Season 13. Criminals resembling the Reds and Blues are striking across the galaxy, and reporter Dylan Andrews decides to investigate along with cameraman Jax Jonez. This leads to the discovery of a revenge plot against both Project Freelancer and the UNSC, by another group of Simulation Troopers, known as 'The Blues and Reds'. While Discovering what the Blues and Reds were up to, Reporter Dylan Andrews finds the Dumb A.I VIC in the Blood Gultch caves and is led back to the real Reds and Blues. Season 16 A.K.A The Shisno Paradox Main article: The Shisno Paradox The Shisno Paradox is an immediate sequel to Season 15, and starts a new multi-season story arc. The Reds and Blues leave to get pizza and end up roped into a cosmic plot with time travel and ancient AI gods. Singularity Main article: Singularity At the end of season 15 Donut was zapped with Time energy from Temple and Loco's Time machine, From that, he was granted the power of the time gods. After the Reds and Blues create a paradox, in an effort to save Agent Washington, they are now stuck reliving time as it once happened, while Genkins, one of the time gods, is posing as numerous characters throughout the Reds and Blues history, to create more paradoxes, and set Chrovos, the most powerful of the time gods, free from their AI prison. Donut must step up to stop Genkins. Zero Main article: Red vs. Blue: Zero The first season not done with Halo machinima, instead creating custom-made Halo models and animating them inside the Unreal engine. Washington and Carolina joined the Alliance of Defense, that is attacked by a mysterious syndicate leader known only as Zero who seeks an Ultimate Power. A ragtag team of heroes and misfits called Shatter Squad must work together to save the galaxy. Family Shatters Main article: Family Shatters A series of non-canon comedic episodes inspired by old sitcoms, starring the members of Shatter Squad and the Viper syndicate. Restoration Main article: Red vs. Blue: Restoration Intended as the series finale, Restoration (originally planned as a season but ultimately reduced to a feature film) retcons the previous five seasons as simulations ran by Epsilon prior to the climactic battle at the end of season 13, albeit also leaving clues that Restoration itself can be taken as a simulation. Epsilon's fragmentation to run the Meta's armor also made the resulting Sigma to behave like the original, subsequently taking control of Tucker's mind and made him go on rampage as the new Meta. Hence the Reds and Blues need to go after their former friend before it's too late. Misc. Public Service Announcements RvB has made several PSAs over the years, several on holidays, others being based on Halo celebration days like Bungie Day or an anniversary. Some are based as advice like arguments and counter-arguments and few on safety like their fire safety PSA or even the movie based PSA on how to act in a movie theater, one even based on Zombies. RvB has also done a PSA based on the Halo: Global Championship. Game Previews Rooster Teeth has done miniseries with the characters previewing Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach and Halo 4. The episode of Halo 3: ODST was to showcase the pre-order bonus of a playable Sgt. Johnson for Firefight. The episode of Halo 4 was to promote the reveal of the release date for Halo 4. One video was made for US audiences while the other was made for international audiences. To promote the addition of Halo content to Fortnite, two videos were done by Rooster Teeth. One, first revealed at the 2020 Game Awards, had Sarge and Grif being visited by popular streamer Ninja, who announced that Blood Gulch and a Master Chief skin were added to Fortnite. The second has Sarge and Grif discovering Shatter Squad members One and Raymond have arrived at Red Base, and the competing duos build a structure to receive a visit from Master Chief. Halo recaps In 2022, a miniseries had the members of Red Team doing humorous recaps of the Paramount+ show Halo: The Television Series. Over ten million years ago, an advanced civilization known as the Precursors controlled the galaxy. Having reigned for billions of years and reached the pinnacle of technological advancement, they seeded the galaxy with life and created many species, including humans and Forerunners. The Precursors held the Mantle of Responsibility, the guardianship of all life in the galaxy. They eventually decided to give the Mantle to one of their creations and they initially selected the Forerunners. However, the Precursors changed their minds on handing it to them - tasking humanity with it. The Forerunners, enraged by their creators' favoring of humanity over themselves, rebelled against the Precursors and wiped them out almost entirely. Some Precursors survived by reducing themselves to dust that, although meant to regenerate their original forms in time, was corrupted over the passage of millions of years and would eventually manifest itself in a completely new form - the parasitic Flood.[2] Meanwhile, the Forerunners would adopt the Mantle to themselves and rise to become the dominant civilization in the galaxy, directing the evolution and development of other species as they saw fit. Records of the truth about the Precursors were lost over time and faded into legend; ten million years after the destruction of the Precursors, Forerunners simply believed that their creators had disappeared and given them the gift of the Mantle.[3] Early humanity first arose on their homeworld Earth, then known as "Erde-Tyrene" and mastered interstellar travel, eventually becoming a prosperous interstellar empire based on the planet Charum Hakkor. They also allied with the San'Shyuum species, who would become the ruling caste of the Covenant thousands of years later. Around 107,445 BCE, however, humanity stumbled upon the nascent form of the Flood parasite near the galaxy's edges. Hundreds of systems were lost to the parasite in a conflict between the humans and the Flood as humans desperately sterilized any infested world while securing new colonies for their dwindled populations in the borders of the Forerunner ecumene. Humanity's aggressive expansion and the perceived violations of the Mantle eventually prompted the Forerunners to take action and go to war against humanity. Despite being forced to fight a two-front war against the Flood and the Forerunners, humanity evidently drove the Flood out of the galaxy. However, the Forerunners, led by the Promethean supreme commander known as the Didact, eventually emerged victorious over humanity after defeating their last stronghold on Charum Hakkor.[3] Following the war in approximately 106,445 BCE, the Forerunners dismantled humanity's civilization, regressing them into a Tier 7 species. The remaining humans exiled to their homeworld Earth, where the supreme Forerunner Lifeshaper, known as the Librarian, tended to them and slowly guided them toward developing a primitive civilization; unlike most Forerunners, the Librarian saw potential in humanity to eventually become the Forerunners' successors.[3] Circa 97,745 BCE, the Flood resurfaced to challenge the Forerunners. Weakened by their struggle with humanity as well as major internal strife, the Forerunners were easy prey to the resurgent Flood. For three hundred years, the parasite claimed numerous Forerunner planets and systems, until virtually overrunning the entire ecumene. As a final resort, the Forerunners - specifically, an individual known as the IsoDidact - fired the Halo Array, a network of superweapons which eradicated all neurologically complex life in the galaxy and subsequently caused most Flood to die out. While life was re-seeded into the galaxy by the Forerunners, the few surviving Forerunners themselves would go into self-imposed exile and not return, passing their Mantle down to its rightful inheritors - humanity.[2] Rise of the Covenant Main articles: History of the Covenant, Halo: Broken Circle Dozens of millennia after the disappearance of the Forerunners, two original species of the Covenant, the San'Shyuum and the Sangheili, spent years locked in a bitter war over the control of the remains of the Forerunners. The Prophets wished to use the technology to search and explore the galaxy, but the Elites believed such usage to be a desecration of their holy artifacts. As the devastating war ravaged both species, the Elites saw that the only way for them to win was to do the exact thing they opposed; use their own Forerunner technology to adapt and befit their vessels. Eventually, the two species formed an alliance which was formalized with the Writ of Union. Over the following centuries, many species would be absorbed under the power of the Covenant hegemony, and thus conscripted into the search for Forerunner relics, and later the attempt to eradicate the human race. Origin of the UNSC Main articles: History of the UNSC, Human colonies In the late 21st and early 22nd centuries, humanity colonized several worlds in the Solar System, including Earth's moon, Mars, the Jovian Moons, and several asteroids. In the years 2160-2200, various governments and factions fought for control of Earth and its first colonies. As overpopulation and unrest on Earth mounted, new political movements formed including the Jovian Frieden and Koslovics led by Vladimir Koslov, resurgences of fascism and neo-communism which waged the Interplanetary, Rain Forest Wars and Mars clashes and were defeated by the victorious United Nations Space Command. The Unified Earth Government was established following the conflicts, emerging as the rulers of most of humanity who now faced the problem of overpopulation, famine and economic instability caused by the wars. In the late 23rd century, humanity developed the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, a device which enabled faster-than-light travel through a domain of alternate space-time known as slipstream space. The first extrasolar colony ships went on to colonize worlds in nearby systems within the next decades. The Inner Colonies, as they later came to be known, would be considered the elite, in contrast to the more remote and less wealthy Outer Colonies, formed over the course of the 2400s. In the 2490s, with over 800 settled worlds across the Orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy, humanity's "Golden Age" of expansion was coming to an end. Gradually, the Outer Colonies had became more isolated and unstable. Their populations had widely varying loyalties to Earth, and taxes and trade restrictions set up by the UEG's colonial governing agencies caused dissent against the Earth government. This eventually led to the Insurrection, an undeclared civil war between the UNSC and the various rebel groups that rose up against it in the Outer Colonies. The book, Halo: The Fall of Reach, details the origins of the SPARTAN-II program and serves as a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved. Insurrection and the SPARTAN-II project Main articles: Halo: The Fall of Reach, Insurrection, SPARTAN programs By 2517, the UNSC was facing extremely low morale due to piracy and the ongoing Insurrection. In order to remove the rebellion without a significant sacrifice of human life, the Office of Naval Intelligence decided to move forward with the SPARTAN-II project, headed by Dr. Catherine Halsey. Seventy-five physically and mentally gifted children were abducted at the age of six, replaced by flash-clones in a black operation, and drafted into the UNSC. The children went through rigorous training and physical augmentations through surgical and medical means. Code-named SPARTANs, these supersoldiers were trained for a life of battle, and would become a great asset against the Covenant in both frontline and covert operations; the Spartans specializing in both.[4] The Human-Covenant War begins Main articles: Halo: Contact Harvest, Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, First Battle of Harvest On February 3, 2525 the UNSC colony of Harvest detected an unknown object on its long-range radar. The object was constructed with materials unlike anything seen before. All contact with Harvest was lost soon after. Ships sent to the system revealed that it had been totally destroyed by a new alien group called the Covenant. A battle group was sent but was defeated by the technologically superior Covenant ships. Only one ship made it back, the CMA Heracles returned with a message that was sent to them, pre-translated, saying, "Your destruction is the will of the gods, and we are their instrument".[4] The novel Halo: Contact Harvest further details the events that transpired at Harvest and the Covenant leadership's underhanded scheme surrounding the beginning of the war: humans were discovered to be living heirs to the Covenant's gods, the Forerunners, forming a concrete threat to the Prophets' authority as well as the very foundation of the their religion. Rather than reveal the truth to the Covenant at large, the new triumvirate of Hierarchs call for the complete destruction of humankind, under the pretense that humans had committed unforgivable offenses against their gods. In response to the destruction of Harvest, Vice Admiral Preston Cole mobilized the largest space fleet in human history to retake Harvest. The fleet defeated the Covenant ships at Harvest in 2531 but at great cost with Cole losing two-thirds of his fleet. The highly advanced Covenant shielding and weapons systems simply outclassed anything they had and so began the slow destruction of the human race. One by one the UNSC colonies were lost until by 2535, virtually all of the Outer Colony worlds had been destroyed by the Covenant and the Inner Colonies were being invaded. The Cole Protocol was established by military order: all human vessels must ensure that Covenant forces do not find Earth. To achieve this whenever they must jump out of a battle, they must do so to a randomized vector that points away from any human worlds.[4] Apex Site Main articles: Halo Wars: Genesis, Halo Wars, Harvest Campaign, Battle of Arcadia, Battle of the Etran Harborage Halo Wars is set twenty one years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved and centers around the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire. On, January 3, 2531, the UNSC Spirit of Fire is sent to Harvest to assist the crippled UNSC Prophecy. When the Spirit of Fire arrives, the Cole Protocol is then enacted on the Prophecy, in so ensuring its destruction. While scientist Ellen Anders and captain James Cutter discuss the northern regions of Harvest, they realize the Covenant might be after something that is specifically there. Cutter sends Sergeant John Forge to assemble a team and investigate. Forge and his team soon find the presence of a Forerunner relic, and that the Covenant are after it. After clearing a way through Covenant forces, the UNSC's forces enter the relic and find out where the Covenant have been pointed to— Arcadia. Following the Covenant fleet there, Spirit of Fire soon gets entangled in an evacuation process, but they do safely extract some civilians from the colony. After a few more battles, Anders gets taken by the Arbiter, Ripa 'Moramee. The chase continues as the Spirit of Fire follows the Covenant fleet to Trove. The search for Ellen Anders starts while it is revealed to both factions that the Flood has taken over the exterior of the shield world. Spirit of Fire enters the shield world's inner shell, looking for Anders, who is now being forced to activate a once-hidden Forerunner fleet for the purposes of being reverse-engineered into the Covenant naval force for easy extermination of the human species. Anders then escapes using a translocation device and then conveniently links up with the UNSC again. This news reaches Spirit of Fire, which then has her FTL drive extracted for the purpose of destroying the Shield World's sun, therefore denying the Covenant the fleet it wants, which would lead to the extinction of the human race. This plan works out, but at the cost of Forge's life, who heroically stays behind to detonate the FTL drive. Without an FTL drive, and the long expected journey home most likely going to take years or decades, the Spirit of Fire's crew enters into cryonic storage, now drifting in space until contact is made. Halo: Reach is set during the fall of the UNSC fortress world Reach. The Fall of Reach Main articles: Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: Reach, Fall of Reach By 2552, many of humanity's Inner Colonies had been destroyed by the Covenant. The UNSC leadership assembled a Spartan-II strike team, at the human command base on the planet Reach. In a move of desperation, the UNSC planned to launch a targeted strike against the Covenant leadership. This plan was abandoned when the Covenant launched a surprise attack on the world of Reach.[4] During this battle, most of Reach is overrun and glassed, and the human fleet obliterated. One of the Spartans, Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, is able to escape on the ship Pillar of Autumn along with her crew. In fleeing the Covenant fleet, the Autumn's onboard AI, Cortana, uses a set of coordinates from a recently discovered Forerunner artifact that leads them straight to the Forerunners' Installation 04.[4] In the game Halo: Reach, the Spartans of Noble Team defend Reach against the Covenant invasion, most of them sacrificing their lives in the process. At the finale, they are given the task of transporting a fragment of Cortana housing critical data to the Pillar of Autumn. Noble Six holds off the Covenant long enough for the Autumn to escape, indirectly enabling humanity's survival in the war. Three weeks after escaping Reach, the Pillar of Autumn exits Slipspace to find a mysterious ring-shaped space station orbiting the gas giant Threshold. The ring, referred to by the Covenant as "Halo", is an artificial construct that is teeming with life. A Covenant fleet, however, is also present, and a subsequent battle heavily damages the Pillar of Autumn and the ship crash lands onto Halo. The first Halo game begins in earnest with the Master Chief's escape from the Autumn, and continues upon landing. The first levels of the game deal with an attempt to reach Halo's control center to uncover its purpose. It is soon discovered that the Covenant have accidentally and unwittingly released the Flood, a parasitic alien species. The Flood then sweep across Halo and devastate human and Covenant forces positioned on it. The release of the Flood prompts 343 Guilty Spark, an eccentric Forerunner AI, to try to activate Halo's defense system, a pulse weapon that, when fired, would wipe out all sentient life in the galaxy large enough to be hosts for the Flood. Technically, that installation only has a maximum effective radius of 25,000 light years, but the pulse would trigger other installations as well, effectively killing all intelligent life in the galaxy. This system is designed to stop the Flood from spreading through the universe if they escape confinement from Halo by the only way possible: starving the Flood of any life source that can sustain them. Naturally, this would wipe out humanity as well, and so the final levels of the game revolve around the Master Chief's attempts to destroy Halo before it fires by self-destructing the Autumn. Despite the abuse sustained during the space battle and the following crash the Pillar of Autumn remained intact, and was subsequently occupied by investigating Covenant forces and later by Flood. Having manually triggered a destabilization of the power cores the Master Chief and Cortana commandeer a Longsword from one of the Pillar of Autumn's docking bays and achieve a safe minimum distance before the Autumn's drives explode, causing the ring-world to fragment.[5] Main articles: Halo: First Strike, Operation: FIRST STRIKE Occurring between Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, Halo: First Strike starts off with Master Chief and a few other survivors in space above the destroyed Halo. They capture the Covenant flagship Ascendant Justice and make their way back to Reach. When they arrive they find the entire planet ravaged; however, on a small patch of the surface left unscathed, it is discovered that Dr. Halsey and several Spartans who survived the fall of Reach have found a Forerunner structure under ONI's CASTLE Base. There they find a special artifact that warps space-time, before being retrieved by the UNSC forces aboard the Ascendant Justice along with other survivors, including Vice Admiral Whitcomb. Cortana, now in control of the Covenant ship, docks with the damaged UNSC frigate Gettysburg and combines their power, also allowing them to return to Earth without violating the Cole Protocol by bringing a potentially "bugged" Covenant ship with them. Damaged in a battle with pursuing Covenant ships, the Ascendant Justice travels to a hidden rebel base in the Eridanus system for repairs. The rebels agree to a truce with the UNSC forces, but the Covenant soon discover their location. In the ensuing chaos, Dr. Halsey abducts Kelly-087 and flees into slipspace aboard the rebel governor's ship. Admiral Whitcomb grimly decides to leave the rebels to fend for themselves while the Ascendant Justice escapes. The Master Chief and other Spartans discover a massive plot to attack Earth. They covertly attack and destroy a massive Covenant refit and repair station along with an attack force many times larger than the one that attacked Reach. In doing so they lose the Covenant flagship; however, they save the Gettysburg and escape back to Earth with it. Main articles: Halo 2, Battle of Earth, Battle of Installation 05, Great Schism, Halo: Broken Circle Halo 2 starts with the beginning of a Covenant attack on Earth. John-117 begins on Cairo Station, one of the three hundred space defense platforms that orbit the planet. After repelling the Covenant boarding parties, the battle shifts to Earth's surface. During the battle, the Prophet of Regret's carrier, Solemn Penance, makes a Slipspace jump and the UNSC ship In Amber Clad, with the Master Chief aboard gets swept up in the ship's wake in a desperate effort to follow it. The In Amber Clad is transported to the vicinity of another Halo ring - Delta Halo - on which they land. The game also follows an alternating story, viewed through the perspective of the Arbiter, an Elite commander disgraced for his failure to prevent the first Halo's destruction. During a mission to quell a movement regarded by the Covenant leadership as heretical, the Covenant recover 343 Guilty Spark. After their mobile capital, High Charity, arrives at Delta Halo, the Covenant becomes embroiled in a power struggle discreetly engineered by the Prophet of Truth, with Brutes usurping the role of the Elites, beginning an apocalyptic civil conflict known as the Great Schism. Meanwhile, a battle rages on Delta Halo's surface. Both the UNSC and the Covenant seek to obtain the Halo's activation index whilst being caught in a battle raging between the Halo's sentinels and the Flood, which has escaped containment. Both the Master Chief and the Arbiter eventually end up in the clutches of an entity known as the Gravemind, the controlling intelligence of the Flood. With its own agenda in mind, the creature tasks the Master Chief and the Arbiter with stopping the Covenant from activating the Halo. The Spartan is sent to High Charity to stop the Prophet of Truth, while the Arbiter is transported to the vicinity of the Halo's control room, where he discovers that the Brutes have betrayed his kind. Confronting Tartarus, the Chieftain of the Brutes, in the control room, the Arbiter learns the truth about the Halos from 343 Guilty Spark: the rings were built to prevent the Flood from spreading throughout the galaxy, and the Forerunners who built it were wiped out when they fired it as a weapon of last resort in the distant past. In spite of this, Tartarus activates the ring in preparation to fire, to bring about the Great Journey. Tentatively allied with the UNSC forces present, the Arbiter manages to defeat Tartarus and the activation index is removed before the Halo can fire. 343 Guilty Spark reveals that although the Index was removed before Delta Halo had time to complete its firing sequence, it sent signals to other Halos in the galaxy, putting them on standby mode. Now, they can be activated remotely from the Ark, whose nature or location is not revealed at this point. High Charity has fallen into chaos as a result of the Great Schism and an invasion by the Flood. The Prophet of Truth, intent on reaching Earth and the Ark, speeds toward the Forerunner Dreadnought in the heart of the city. With Cortana staying behind to momentarily delay the Dreadnought's launch, the Master Chief boards the Forerunner ship as it launches from the Covenant holy city, headed for Earth. Set mainly on the mysterious world of Onyx, Halo: Ghosts of Onyx establishes the SPARTAN-III program. SPARTAN-III program and Onyx Main articles: Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, SPARTAN-III program, Onyx Conflict Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, which tells the story of the events that occurred on the planet Onyx, begins in 2545, with the Beta Company of SPARTAN-IIIs deploying to a Covenant fleet refueling depot on Pegasi Delta. They proceed to destroy the facility, but due to unexpectedly heavy Covenant resistance, all but two of the three-hundred-strong Spartan company is wiped out. The only survivors, Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091, are revealed to be only twelve years old, and Lucy is traumatized and rendered mute. In 2531, SPARTAN-II Blue Team raid a rebel base on planet Victoria to recover stolen nuclear warheads. The team is nearly captured by a rebel ambush, but is saved by the timely, intuitive intervention of Kurt-051. Some time afterward, Colonel James Ackerson presents the top leadership of ONI with his proposal for a new Spartan project. They agree that the SPARTAN-II program is prohibitively expensive and that a more streamlined, "disposable" breed of Spartans must be trained for high-risk operations. Kurt-051 and SCPO Mendez are brought in to train the new generation of Spartans on the classified planet of Onyx. Over twenty years later, in 2552, Teams Saber, Katana, and Gladius of Gamma Company, the third S-III generation, conduct a training exercise when they run into previously undiscovered Forerunner Sentinels. Through a series of events, a group of Sangheili-led Covenant discover the existence of Onyx and the potential Forerunner treasures within, prompting the UNSC to dispatch reinforcements to the planet. Meanwhile, Dr. Halsey, having disappeared on a quest of her own during the events of First Strike, arrives at Onyx and joins with the UNSC forces there. Pursued by the Sentinels and the Covenant, the human force discover an ancient Forerunner city, where they learn that the entire planet is an artificial construct. Fighting off determined Covenant pursuers, they press on into the heart of the planet. Entering a slipspace rift in Onyx's core, they find themselves alone in a vast Dyson sphere habitat. Kurt-051 stays behind to activate a pack of nuclear warheads, sacrificing himself to halt the Covenant pursuers. Subsequently, Onyx itself disintegrates, and is revealed to be composed of billions of Sentinels. Main articles: Halo 3: ODST, Battle of Mombasa Halo 3: ODST tells the story of what happened after the Covenant slipspace jump in the port city of New Mombasa in Halo 2, as seen from the eyes of the Rookie, an ODST, and his squadmates. Prior to the slipspace rupture in Halo 2, a large number of ODSTs are destined to drop into the Covenant carrier that evaded Earth's orbital defenses. The drop is initiated, but the ODST squad of Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck is commandeered by his superior, and former love interest, Captain Veronica Dare of the Office of Naval Intelligence to drop into the city of New Mombasa, as opposed to the Covenant carrier. The slipspace rupture causes the squad to scatter and land in different parts of the city. The Rookie wakes about six hours later and must find his squad. He roams the night-time city, fighting off Covenant patrols and discovering, with the aid of the city's Superintendent AI, clues that allow him to discover the fate of his fellow squad mates (with each discovery putting the player into that squad member's place for a level). He then picks up on Captain Dare's distress signal. The Rookie fights his way into and through an underground facility where they meet up, and continue to fight their way through a massive Drone hive (awakened by the earlier detonation of an ONI building at the top of the shaft at the hands of Mickey and Dutch). They both fight their way to the Superintendent data core, and discover a Covenant Engineer, one of many biological supercomputers and unwilling assistants to the Covenant, whom has taken apart the Superintendent's memory core and possesses vital information on the Covenant which could turn the tide of the war. They, along with Buck, fight their way down the city's Waterfront Highway, where they witness the Covenant begin to glass parts of the city. They hold off against waves of Covenant until Mickey, Dutch and Romeo arrive to pick them up. They arrive just before the Covenant prepare to glass their previous position, actually discovered to be an excavation project. They manage to escape just in time, only to realize that the Covenant has found what they were looking for. End of the war Main articles: Halo 3, Battle of Kenya, Battle of Installation 00 Halo 3 takes place on Earth and the Ark. Halo 3 takes place two weeks after the end of Halo 2. The Covenant have all but obliterated human resistance on Earth, and have committed most of their forces in East Africa, near the ruins of Mombasa. Marines and the Arbiter recover Master Chief John-117 after he jumps from the Forerunner Dreadnought as it entered Earth's atmosphere, and they all make their way back to the local UNSC base, Crow's Nest. The Master Chief defends the base, ultimately destroying it with a bomb. He regroups with a small group of Marines and they rally scattered UNSC forces before assaulting the Covenant-held Tsavo Highway, clearing a path into Voi. It is revealed that a large Forerunner artifact has been dug up under the African desert by the Covenant, and the Prophet of Truth is planning to activate it. Presumably this is the Ark, so therefore this would activate the Halos, and so a hasty attack is set in motion by Lord Hood to destroy the Forerunner Dreadnought with a surprise aerial assault. Master Chief clears Voi of all Covenant anti-air units to clear the path for Lord Hood's frigates for an assault on the dreadnought. However, the assault on the dreadnought has absolutely no effect, and Truth activates the artifact all the same. A large portal is created above the artifact, into which the Covenant forces disappear. Soon after, a derelict Covenant cruiser appears out of Slipspace, and crashes nearby, infested with Flood. The Master Chief and the Arbiter make their way toward the ship, and as they near its location, an Elite-controlled fleet appears, striking up an alliance with the humans and helping rid the city of Flood. Master Chief enters the ship and retrieves a message from Cortana, warning that High Charity is heading to Earth, full of Flood. It is decided that only the frigate Forward Unto Dawn, the ship of Miranda Keyes, along with the Elites, will go through the portal after Truth, and stop him from activating the rings, as well as finding the "solution" to the Flood that Cortana's message spoke of. The human/Elite force arrives at the Ark, and engage Truth's Brute fleet. Master Chief makes landfall and finds the Cartographer of the Ark, which leads him to the location of the remaining Covenant forces at the Citadel. This leads to a trident strike at three shield generators guarding the Citadel at the heart of the Ark. Once all three generators have been deactivated, The Master Chief and the Arbiter breach the Citadel after Truth kills Miranda Keyes and forces Sergeant Major Avery Johnson to activate the rings. The Arbiter kills Truth, ending the Covenant, while the Master Chief deactivates the rings. The Gravemind then turns on them and sends a horde of Flood their way. After the Master Chief and the Arbiter escape the Flood, they discover that a new Halo is being built to replace Installation 04 which is nearly complete. The Master Chief decides that the only way to destroy the Flood was to activate the newly built Halo, which was out of range of the other installations, with Cortana. The Arbiter leaves to gather the surviving forces and get them ready to leave, and the Master Chief heads to the crashed High Charity to recover Cortana. After wading through tantamount to infinity of Flood, he recovers her and escapes to the new Halo with the Arbiter. After fighting their way up to the top of the control room, the Master Chief and the Arbiter enter the control center, and attempt to activate the ring. However, 343 Guilty Spark attempts to stop the Chief and Johnson from activating the ring, saying that the charging sequence of the incomplete Halo will prove too much for the structure, and cause it to tear itself apart. In the fight, 343 Guilty Spark mortally injures Johnson, but fails at killing Master Chief, who destroys him with a Spartan Laser. They succeed in activating the ring, however as expected, the installation begins to fall apart, and once more does Master Chief makes an attempt to escape Installation 04 in a Warthog. The two board the Dawn, which then proceeds toward the portal. The Dawn heads into the portal just as Halo fires, which closes as it gets halfway through shearing the Dawn in half. Half of the Dawn, as well as the Arbiter, crashes back on Earth, and a memorial service is held for those who perished in the Human-Covenant War, ending on the note of the Master Chief's death. However, unknown to the rest of humanity, the Master Chief survived and put himself into cryosleep, as Cortana activates a distress beacon. Adrift in space for years, the rear half of the Forward Unto Dawn eventually hurtles toward a mysterious Forerunner planet, later to be known as Requiem. Halo: Glasslands is the first novel to be set in the post-war Halo universe. Post-war era Main articles: Kilo-Five Trilogy, Blooding Years, Halo: Spartan Assault, Halo: Initiation, Halo: Nightfall, Halo: New Blood, Halo: Hunters in the Dark, Halo: Last Light, Halo: Shadow of Intent Following the end of the war, humanity begins to rebuild and achieves a number of technological breakthroughs with the aid of an increasing amount of discovered Forerunner artifacts. Despite the alliance with Arbiter Thel 'Vadam, the political situation in the known galaxy remains volatile, with ONI concerned about reprisal on part of the now-divided Sangheili. A Sangheili group known as the Servants of the Abiding Truth push for an insurrection against the Arbiter and his forces, whom they consider to be blasphemous for colluding with humanity. In response to the growing strife among the Sangheili, ONI Commander in Chief Admiral Margaret Parangosky assembles a black operations team known as Kilo-Five, which is assigned on a covert mission to sow discord between disparate Sangheili factions by any means necessary, as well as to arrest Dr. Catherine Halsey once she has been located. In a concurrent storyline which directly follows that of Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, Dr. Halsey, SCPO Franklin Mendez, and a group of SPARTAN-IIs and SPARTAN-IIIs look for a means of escape from a Forerunner shield world locked in a slipspace bubble in the remnants Onyx. While they are eventually recovered and the shield world is claimed by the UNSC as a research facility christened Trevelyan, Admiral Parangosky has Dr. Halsey arrested and imprisoned as personal retribution. With Halsey out of the picture, Kilo-Five has another growing priority in the rebel-leaning planet of Venezia which may present yet another threat to the UNSC. Meanwhile, the situation on Sanghelios escalates as Avu Med 'Telcam rallies the Servants of the Abiding Truth and their allies into an all-out war against the Arbiter. However, the insurgent forces are driven back as the UNSC's newest and most powerful warship, UNSC Infinity, arrives in the aid of the Arbiter. All the while this is taking place, Jul 'Mdama, a member of the Abiding Truth imprisoned on Trevelyan, looks for a way to escape his confinement and soon learns of the Didact, a mighty Forerunner commander who once held a hatred for humanity. Seeking to enlist the Didact's aid in his crusade against humanity, Jul manages to escape the shield world to the Sangheili colony of Hesduros, where the locals agree to join forces with him in his search for the Didact, laying the foundations for a powerful new Covenant group. In the following years, a number of remnant factions of the former Covenant continue to spring up, with numerous independent warlords laying claim to the Covenant's legacy in spite of the Arbiter's efforts of building peace between the fragmented Covenant and the UNSC. In response to these splinter groups as well as the budding resurgence of the colonial insurrection, the UNSC creates a new generation of augmented supersoldiers in the SPARTAN-IV program; these events are detailed in the comic series Halo: Initiation and the novelette Halo: New Blood. In the game Halo: Spartan Assault, players take control of SPARTAN-IV supersoldiers in a battle against a rogue Covenant faction; one of many disparate conflicts in the years following the Human-Covenant War. Requiem and the Didact Main articles: Halo 4, Battle of Requiem, Raid on Ivanoff Station, New Phoenix Incident, Halo: Spartan Strike, Battle of Installation 03, Battle of New Phoenix Halo 4 centers around the return of the Master Chief and the threat of the Didact. Aboard the severed aft half of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn, drifting through space for over four years, Cortana notices that the ship's intruder alarms have activated and wakes John-117 from cryo-sleep. Fighting their way through boarding parties of Jul 'Mdama's Covenant, the duo discover that the ship is orbiting a Forerunner world. Suddenly, a gaping maw on the face of the planet opens and forcibly pulls the Dawn and several Jul's Covenant ships inside. Having crash-landed on the shield world, which they soon learn is known as Requiem, John-117 and Cortana engage the occupying Covenant forces while attempting to find a way back to UNSC-controlled space. Meanwhile, UNSC Infinity is approaching Requiem, oblivious of the artificial gravity well which pulled the Dawn inside. While attempting to find a way to contact Infinity, John-117 and Cortana are attacked by mechanical Promethean forces. Activating a supposed broadcast relay in Requiem's core, John-117 instead accidentally releases a Forerunner commander known as the Didact from imprisonment. The Didact declares the return of the Forerunners as the galaxy's rulers and saviors. Having always revered the Forerunners as gods, Jul's Covenant quickly swear alliance to the Promethean. Escaping the core of Requiem, the Chief and Cortana arrive just in time to witness the UNSC Infinity crashing on the surface of Requiem. The Didact makes for the crash-site, followed by the Master Chief, who reunites with the UNSC and Infinity's executive officer, Commander Thomas Lasky, for the first time in years and assists in the defense of the stranded Infinity, and with the help of Marines and SPARTAN-IVs, eventually driving back the Didact and the Covenant forces. Afterwards, Captain Andrew Del Rio has a difference of opinion with the Master Chief on whether or not they should leave Requiem, or stay and deal with the Didact. During a mission, the Master Chief encounters a vision from the Librarian, who warns him of the Didact's plan to enslave humanity using a device known as the Composer. Despite this, Captain Del Rio orders the Infinity to leave Requiem immediately. Disobeying orders, the Master Chief stays behind in an effort to stop the Didact. John-117 pursues the Promethean and his Covenant remnant allies to Ivanoff Station, where the Didact plans to acquire the Composer. Despite the efforts of the Master Chief, the Didact eventually uses the Composer to digitize the occupants of Ivanoff, save for John-117 who is saved by the Librarian's enhancements. The Didact subsequently plans to use the Composer to attack Earth; the Master Chief follows him in close pursuit aboard a Broadsword space fighter. When the Didact reaches Earth, the Infinity and Battlegroup Dakota engage his ship immediately. Armed with a HAVOK nuke, John-117 makes his way into the ship and confronts the Didact, but not before the Promethean general uses the Composer to digitize the population of New Phoenix, URNA. With the Chief incapacitated by the Didact, Cortana, nearing the end of her life, immobilizes the Didact with hard light bindings. With the last of his strength, John disables the Didact with a pulse grenade, sending him falling to a slipspace rupture beneath the Composer, and detonates the nuclear bomb manually. Using the last of her power, Cortana saves the Master Chief from the blast and the two meet for one last time before Cortana fades away. Left floating in the debris field, John-117 is recovered and taken aboard the Infinity. The Next 72 Hours Main articles: Halo: Escalation Issue 8, Halo: Escalation Issue 9, Halo: Escalation Issue 10, Mission to Installation 03 The Next 72 Hours takes place shortly after the events of Halo 4. In The Next 72 Hours, an arc of the comic series Halo: Escalation, it is revealed that the Didact survived his defeat aboard Mantle's Approach. After falling through the Composer's slipspace portal, he finds himself on Installation 03 and encounters the monitor 859 Static Carillon. John-117, reunited with his SPARTAN-II compatriots of Blue Team — Linda-058, Kelly-087 and Frederic-104 — after several years, confronts the Didact and with the aid of Static Carillon, defeats the Forerunner commander by subjecting him to the effects of multiple Composers. Static Carillon takes Installation 03 for safekeeping while the Spartans return to Earth. After being debriefed, the Master Chief returns to his team and they depart for new battles — without the knowledge or authorization of Lord Hood. Return to Requiem Main articles: Spartan Ops, Requiem Campaign Fireteam Majestic are the protagonists of the Halo: Infinity CGI series. While their defeat at Earth proved a set back for the Prometheans and Jul's Covenant, it did not result in their defeat. Months later, in February 2558, the Infinity returns to Requiem with a complement of Spartans, determined to reclaim the shield world. Once there, Infinity engages in combat with Jul's Covenant fleet, and deploys ground forces, including Fireteams Majestic and Crimson as well as detachments of other UNSC military forces on the planet. The Spartan fireteams run through a series of search and destroy, rescue, artifact recovery, extraction and assassination ops. During one of these operations, a mysterious Forerunner artifact is uncovered and subsequently brought aboard Infinity. After the device teleports Chief Engineer Glassman to the surface of the planet, Dr. Catherine Halsey is brought in to investigate. Glassman is taken captive by the Jul 'Mdama's Covenant and is ordered to activate the Librarian's shrine, though he is not successful. Dr. Halsey begins dialog with an unknown party who shares her interest in the Librarian. The intelligence is actually Jul 'Mdama, who is manipulating Halsey into divulging vital secrets about the Forerunners. Halsey is apprehended after her unwitting communication with 'Mdama is discovered. Meanwhile, Spartan Thorne rescues Dr. Glassman and the pair escape custody. The Absolute Record takes place between Spartan Ops and Halo 5: Guardians. After Dr. Halsey briefly escapes imprisonment and resumes her communication with 'Mdama, Infinity is boarded by Covenant and Promethean forces who capture Dr. Halsey. They take her to the Librarian's "shrine", where 'Mdama awaits. Captain Lasky consults with Admiral Serin Osman, head of the Office of Naval Intelligence, who orders Lasky to assassinate Dr. Halsey. Against Lasky's protests, Commander Palmer departs to execute the order. However, Lasky sends Fireteam Majestic to rescue Dr. Halsey and stop Palmer. Meanwhile, Dr. Halsey successfully activates and enters the Librarian's shrine. The Librarian's essence gives Dr. Halsey an artifact known as the Janus Key, but Jul 'Mdama gets one half of the key. Halsey tosses Gabriel Thorne the other half before she is abducted by 'Mdama. Believing to have obtained what they were looking for, Jul 'Mdama sends Requiem to be destroyed by a nearby star. Deactivating a slipspace anchor originating from Requiem, the UNSC Infinity narrowly escapes the planet's gravity well. Afterwards, Lasky and Palmer observe as Dr. Glassman studies one half of the divided Janus Key. Meanwhile, aboard a Covenant ship, Dr. Halsey seemingly agrees to collaborate with Jul 'Mdama and his forces. Absolute Record Main articles: Halo: Escalation, Battle of Aktis IV, Operation: ATHENA The comic series Halo: Escalation picks up where the events of Spartan Ops left off, continuing the story of the Infinity crew and further exploring the galactic status quo. After several missions unrelated to the preceding events, Infinity is lured into a trap by Jul 'Mdama and Dr. Halsey, resulting in a battle over the Janus Key. 'Mdama and Halsey eventually gain both halves of the artifact, revealing them the location of a critical Forerunner site known as the Absolute Record. 'Mdama's Covenant and Halsey eventually reach the Record, trailed by a UNSC strike team. Due to interference from the Forerunner site's Custodian, neither side manages to unlock the facility, while the AI confiscates the Janus Key. Both sides flee the Record, with 'Mdama's Covenant forces suffering heavy losses and fracturing. The Created Main articles: Hunt the Truth, Halo 5: Guardians, Battle of Sunaion, Battle of Genesis Halo 5: Guardians centers around Fireteam Osiris and Blue Team and the threat of Cortana. Master Chief and Blue Team go absent without leave to pursue the AI construct and Chief's former companion Cortana. With Blue Team's loyalties called into question, Spartan Jameson Locke and Fireteam Osiris are sent to locate and return them to the United Nations Space Command. Blue Team go to the ONI station Argent Moon and destroy it, but not before John-117 has a vision of Cortana. Blue Team flees the Argent Moon in a Winter-class prowler and head for Meridian. Fireteam Osiris is told about Blue Team going to Meridian, and they follow. Osiris helps the colony before they eventually set out to find Blue Team. Osiris then encounters the Warden Eternal and they fight. After Fireteam Osiris defeats the Warden they follow Blue Team's footsteps and come across a Guardian. Locke and John fight, and eventually the Guardian leaves with Blue Team aboard, while destroying most of Meridian. Osiris then joins Thel 'Vadam's forces on Sangheilios, to find another Guardian that has been resting under Sunaion. After defeating many Covenant forces, and even a Kraken, the Arbiter and Osiris head to Sunaion. The Arbiter defeats the Jul's Covenant, and Osiris boards the Guardian, with Sarah Palmer's help. While Fireteam Osiris is fighting Covenant forces alongside the Arbiter, Blue Team arrives on Genesis. While Blue Team fights Covenant forces that have arrived through the slipspace portal that the Sunaion Guardian left, Cortana leads them towards a Forerunner building. The Gateway to the Domain. Blue Team encounters the Warden Eternal, and after a bit of talking they fight. Cortana then leads Blue Team into the Gateway Fireteam Osiris arrives at Genesis in the Sunaion Guardian, and they look for Blue Team. They meet 031 Exuberant Witness and she helps Osiris by bringing in a M820 Scorpion. Osiris takes the Scorpion and fights through the remnants of Jul's Covenant and Prometheans, who were already fighting each other. Osiris then reaches the Gateway and battles two Warden Eternals in a courtyard. Once the Wardens are defeated Osiris follows Blue Team. Right when Osiris reaches them Cortana transports Blue Team inside the Gateway, and Osiris are left to find them. Inside the Gateway the Warden tries to stop Blue Team from reaching Cortana, despite her best attempts to stop him. They fight through many Prometheans, and eventually the Warden Eternal tries to stop them with three of his bodies. Blue Team defeats all three of his bodies and move on. In the next area the Warden brings in multiple bodies, too many for Blue Team to fight. Blue Team is backed onto the edge of a platform, and before the Warden can kill them, Cortana dissolves his bodies. Blue Team confronts Cortana, and she announces her plans to seal Blue Team in a Cryptum. They are unable to do anything, and Cortana seals them in. Exuberant and Osiris must stop Cortana from locking Blue Team away for thousands of years. While Osiris fights Prometheans, multiple UNSC Artificial intelligences begin to swear their allegiance to Cortana, beginning the Created. Osiris fights in a large area and destroys a number of generators. After that they enter another building and defeat the last of the Prometheans in their area. Locke destroys another generator and Blue Team's Cryptum is brought back to them. Cortana leaves with part of her plan being foiled. She arrives over Earth with one of her Guardians and uses the Guardian's EMP to shut down most of the planet's power and defenses. While this happens the Infinity flees Earth's orbit. The Banished and the Ark Main articles: Halo Wars 2, Second Ark Conflict Halo wars 2 details the events of Red team during the second ark conflict. After 28 years adrift the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire found themselves at Installation 00 under the control of the Jiralhanae Atriox's Banished. The Spirit of Fire's crew was suddenly woken up by the ship's former artificial intelligence, Serina. Eventually the crew discovered their location at the Ark outside of the Milky Way. After discovering this the crew intercepted an encrypted UNSC signal coming from the surface before then deploying forces onto the ark including Red Team. At the research outpost Red Team discovered an Artificial intelligence named Isabel, who then would later become the Spirit of Fire's AI. After this they were engaged with Banished forces resulting in Douglas-042 wounded and Alice-130 staying behind to fight. Thereafter the UNSC then besieged the scavenging operation led by Decimus, which resulted in Decimus retreating and the UNSC recieving the location of the Cartographer. After eliminating the Banished and Sentinel threat, the humans accessed the Cartographer and learned that Atriox was using the Teleportation grid to transport his forces and destroying a Power Node would disrupt that. Meanwhile Alice-130 survived the attack at the research station and spent time freeing prisoners then proceeding to contact the ship using the outposts communication technology and started a campaign against the Banished. Atriox knew of this and stationed Decimus and forces to guard the nodes, however the node was destroyed and resulted in the death of the War Chief. In response to this, the banished Flagship, the Enduring Conviction led an assault on the Spirit of Fire. During this professor Anders discovered that a Halo ring was in the ark's Foundry and they could disable the firing apparatus and use it to send for help. Unfortunately the Enduring Conviction would need to be eliminated before that. A plan was formed to use a Particle cannon to assault the ship, then Jerome-092 and Isabel could board the ship. However Jerome's Pelican was shot down which forced him to travel on foot to the Gravity lift. The Particle cannon was successfully fired and the shields of the ship were eliminated. After Jerome entered the ship, Isabel activated the ships Energy projector to eliminate banished forces but damaged the Ark releasing swarms of Sentinels to destroy the Carrier. Afterwards, Atriox and Let 'Volir observed the wreckage of the ship but were surprised to see a Halo ring rising and in response tried to prevent the humans from using it. After several skirmishes on the ark, UNSC and Banished forces were deployed onto the ring where another battle would take place. At the Control room, Ellen Anders used a Retriever Sentinel to gain access to the structure where she then used The Core to cordon off a section of the ring's landmass that had most of the Banished forces. Afterwards the UNSC forces left the ring, but Anders unfortunately was too late to leave the ring and was present when it entered slipspace. Following this Anders reached the surface of the ring only to be met by a Guardian Custode taking the ring out of slipspace. Zeta Halo Main articles: Halo Infinite, Battle over Installation 07, Battle for Zeta Halo Coverart of Halo Infinite. Halo Infinite details the events on Installation 07 and the return of the endless. After the UNSC Infinity is locked in a tense naval battle with the Banished above Installation 07, the Master Chief is thrown off the ship by Atriox, who later escapes before it crash lands onto the ring. Now stranded in space, the Master Chief is discovered by UNSC Marine Echo-216, who escaped from the Infinity in a pelican during the fight. Echo-216 brings the Master Chief on board, before rerouting power to his suit to wake him up from survival mode. Chief asks for a status report, much to the bewilderment of Echo-216, who continues to explain to Chief that the UNSC have lost. During this a Banished dreadnought named the Ghost of Gbraakon finds them and activates a stasis cannon and prepares to bring the pelican into the ship. Unfortunately for the Banished the Master chief left the pelican, made his way through the debris picking up an MA40 assault rifle and entered the hangar bay. After successfully enter the dreadnought he eliminate forces within the ship eventually making his way to the Bridge where War Chief Escharum soon found out of the master chief. Afterwards John proceeded to disable the ships Cooling manifold resulting in the ship detonating and both of them escaping. Help.png This section is a stub. You can help Halopedia by expanding it.

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